1920s

• What is the cycle of prosperity?


  Low unemployment, high wages, high sales meant increased wealth.
• What did Henry ford do?


  Made the first car production chain for Model T 1914
• Why did the US boom?

  • Americans believed in right to prosperity.
  • Industrial efficiency movement- advertising but now pay later.
  • New industries like home appliances and cars..
  • Republican policies like laissez-faire, Tariffs (1922 Fordney McCumber), low tax.
• why did the us boom?

  • Sold supplies to allies in wars but stayed out of conflict.
  • Huge land and natural resources- industrial strength.
• What were entertainment changes in the 1920s?

  • More cinema- first talkie in 1927
  • Most households had a radio- jazz music.
• When did women get the vote?

  1920- by 1929 10.5 million had jobs.
• When was prohibition?


  1920-1933
• What was prohibition?


  Ban on selling making or transporting more than 0.5% alcohol.
• What act introduced prohibition?

  Volstead Act
• Who wanted prohibition?

  • Anti saloon league
  • Religious groups
  • 25 states banned it
  • Breweries run by Germans
• How did government enforce prohibition?

  • 1500 prohibition agents
  • Alcohol consumption fell by 30%
• What were the effects of prohibition?


  Bootlegging, speakeasies (200,000 in 1930) , organized crime.

  800 alcohol poisoning deaths in 1926.
• Who didn't benefit from the boom?

  • Farmers- more machinery, more taxes. 600,000 lost jobs in 1924
  • Traditional industries, now rayon.
  • African American workers.
  • Native Americans in poverty
• When was al Capone born? And died?

  1899- 1947
• What was al capone’s massacre?


  St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1929 He murdered 7 members of another gang.
• What is a melting pot?

  Cultural assimilation.
• What was the case of Sacco and Vanzetti?


  Anarchist immigrants executed after an unfair trial in 1927.
• Who were WASPS?


  White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
• What were the Jim crow laws?


  Segregation laws legalised until 1968.
• What was the red scare?


  Anti-communist hysteria and fear of communist infiltration in the United States during the Cold War after Russia became communist in 1917.
• What were the palmer raids?


  Raids on suspected radicals in the United States in the 1920s. Around 6000 people were arrested and police banned passports.
• Who was Mitchell palmer?


  Attorney General whose house was bombed and sparked a communist scare in society 1919.
• Who were the kkk?

  White supremacist group. Hiran wesly evans 1922 terror campaigns.
• how many people were in the KKK in 1929?

  Fallen to 200,000.
• What happens to immigration laws?

  In 1921-1924 quotas increased.